Enervation
by starah
Summary: In Alabasta, Tashigi prevents the marines from touching the sleeping Straw-hat crew. Zoro is awake, and watches the whole thing... (Short, alternate-route piece.)


It was raining in torrents, but Zoro just couldn't get his body to move. Not even to lift a hand to wipe away the stream of water down his nose. He must have stretched every muscle in his body, torn several ligaments and fractured a couple of bones and joints, but the jarring pain was nothing compared to the relaxing sense of freedom and accomplishment in him now. For the first time they had entered Alabasta, it was a time to finally rest.  
  
He closed his eyes, ready to join the contented rest his crew was experiencing. But they snapped open again, because he heard a voice of a marine.  
  
A marine! Zoro's hand tried to grip his sword, but they refused to listen to him. Nothing seemed connected to his brain. He forced his eyes open, and they flickered across the exhausted expressions on Nami, Sanji and Chopper, and the snoring faces of Usopp and Luffy. They weren't awake at all. It was his responsibility to fend the marines off and leg it with his friends under his arms, but it seemed impossible - he could feel nothing but an intense, fiery pain that shot up his arm everytime he tried to move it.  
  
"They're unconcious! Let's get them, general Tashigi!"  
  
He lifted his eyes to see, through the thick blankets of rain smothering his long-range vision, the white uniforms of the marines. There was a woman with a familiar jacket, and his stomach seemed to lurch. It was her! Here he was, so tired he could barely move, and Luffy looking like he wasn't going to wake up even if a bomb hit them - and they were all sprawled out for the taking.  
  
This was bad. Zoro tried to move again, but couldn't - his muscles pleaded for mercy and refused to give up the momentary peace he had granted them. This was very, very bad--  
  
"...Leave them alone."  
  
Her voice sounded strange, and she had said it so quietly Zoro wondered if he'd heard right. Leave them alone? Did she mean...?  
  
"B-but general!! They're all unconcious, when else are we going to get them? This is our chance!!"  
  
"...I said," The swordswoman said more loudly, "to leave them alone. I won't let you go near them!! THIS IS AN ORDER!!!"  
  
The marines did not reply, and there was a shocked silence as the woman turned to leave.  
  
"B-b-but..."  
  
"You don't know anything," The general said quietly, stopping in her tracks, "we don't deserve to touch a hair on their heads now. Head back to the ship. If any of you touch them, I'll see to it that Smoker-san will look personally into the matter."  
  
The marines shared helpless, confused and curious glances, but they walked away from the scene of sleeping pirates and past the marine general. The last one of them passing looked at her and asked hesitantly, "Aren't you going?"  
  
"I will follow." She said simply. The marine soldiers left her standing alone, her back towards the sleeping pirates. Zoro wondered what was going on. She'd protected them when they were wide open - and it was her job to do the opposite. To his enormous surprise, she suddenly spoke.  
  
"You are awake, aren't you?"  
  
"...Why?" Zoro managed to croak out, wincing at the pain this caused his chest, "Why didn't you...?"  
  
"It is not in my right to." She gripped her sword handle tightly, and despite the rhythmetic pounding of the rain Zoro could have sworn he heard a crack in her voice. "I don't deserve to do anything to preserve my so-called justice in the face of your crew. Not when I don't know much about it myself."  
  
"...So are you never gonna try to catch us?" Zoro asked, a tired smirk lifting his lips.  
  
"...This is definitely just a one-off thing. We'll catch you next time."  
  
"Next time?" Zoro repeated.  
  
"We will meet again." The general said shortly. Then she paused before saying softly, "And perhaps next time... I will be strong enough to stand in what I call justice."  
  
Zoro watched her turn just slightly to look at him, and caught her dark-brown eyes from behind her glasses look almost dolefully back at his slumped form.  
  
"So next time... I will not let you go. For now, despite the tears of the Wadoichimonyi, I will let you mis-use your swords."  
  
"...You're never going to get it."  
  
"I am only letting you keep it now because this time... you used it for something entirely different." She quickly looked away, and Zoro had the impression she was trying hard not to cry. "Take good care of it until we meet again, Roronoa."  
  
With great effort, it seemed, she pulled herself out of her frozen stance and started to follow the steps of the other marines. The rain made her hair stringy and seemed to distort her already tired form into looking more forlorn and defeated. Zoro lifted his eyes to follow her back, and something stirred in him. He didn't know exactly what made him say it, but without thinking twice about it he mustered the most strength he could into his voice for his next words.  
  
"...I'll wait for you."  
  
She stopped walking abruptly, as though shocked to hear his words. Then, letting out a pained, heartfelt sob, she ran. The rain snatched her away from his eyes, and he heard her footsteps make loud splashes that also faded away into the distance. Soon the silence was only penetrated by the beat of the rain.  
  
Zoro shut his eyes and relaxed entirely, feeling at peace now that he knew that they would not be taken away in their sleep. As sleep started to engulf his senses, her saddened eyes flickered in his mind. Just like Kuina's. The only significant difference he could find was that the marine general seemed a lot more... vunerable.  
  
He found himself sincerely hoping that the next time he and the swordswoman met, she would be strong enough to look at him defiantly in the eye. Even if he had to run from her again, he realised, to his dismay, that he wanted to see her again. Wasn't that sort of weird? To have sort of perverse pleasure of watching someone grow... in place of someone else? That was wrong, wasn't it...? But...  
  
He'd made another promise...  
  
Despite his inner misgivings, the last thing he thought of before he slept was a wish that perhaps one day even birds unable to fly could spread their wings and try to, and perhaps...  
  
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A/N: Tashigi and Kuina are names of birds that cannot fly, just in case you didn't know... very short and very weird and probably very pointless... but I just wanted it to happen... I know the dialogue is inaccurate, but forgive me - I'm not looking at the original text... and the words from my memory are from the Japanese version... and my Japanese is abysmal... =-=; 


End file.
